On August 22 and 23, SEARAC will hold a two-day training for California Ensuring Our Healthy Future partners on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and on aging issues. Through panels, small group discussions, and skills-building sessions, the training will prepare participants for administrative advocacy visits with county and state administrative offices. Similar to SEARAC's Leadership and Advocacy Training, participants will have a chance to develop, solidify, and practice their messages before going on their visits.

Earlier this week, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act (BCA), which raises the debt ceiling by at least $2.1 trillion and cuts nearly $1 trillion over the next 10 years. Despite the President’s call for a balanced approach, new tax revenues were not included in the deal.

The legislation includes immediate cuts to discretionary funding, impacting social services programs that support low-income and underserved communities. The deal cuts domestic discretionary programs such as Head Start, K-12 education, job training, domestic violence prevention, meals-on-wheels and other services for vulnerable people, but does not affect the tax breaks enjoyed by millionaires and corporations. However, it does protect Social Security, Medicare, and other entitlement programs.

As you may well know, Congress has only a few more days to raise the national debt ceiling or endanger funding for essential services and risk pushing the economy into a deeper recession.

Please take five minutes to call or e-mail your Senators and Representative today to urge them to “reject the Boehner plan” and to “lift the debt ceiling while protecting Medicaid and other safety net programs.”

Click here to send an email to Congress! Or Call your Members of Congress toll free: 1-888-907-1485 (many thanks to AFSCME).

On May 18th, SEARAC launched its first ever individual giving campaign to raise funds for the annual Leadership and Advocacy Training (LAT). After a month of fundraising, we are happy to annouce that we exceeded our goal of $3,000 to raise over $5,000 from more than 80 donors! This allows us to fully fund eight community members to participate in this year's training on July 24-26, 2011 here in Washington, DC. SEARAC would like to extend our sincere congratulations to Bruce Thao, a DC Leadership and Advocacy Training 2010 participant, for raising over $1,000 and winning the iPad 2!